So that’s the plan. A piece of land with a panoramic view above the middle of almost nowhere. A dirt road that doesn’t technically exist cut into the side of a mountain , in a place with no water or electricity, leads down to a small pre-fab house. Today’s chores: continue to weld pergola beams together, clean away all of the tree branches and thorn bushes protruding into the road so that you don’t feel pushed towards the cliff’s edge on your rickety way. Reward:

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Voice

Democracy is not for the lazy or indifferent. All that urgent indignation we endured – and continue to – from every faction whirled up from complacent demographies. Most politicians are careerists. As they move from the local to somewhere in the glocal sphere, are we keeping them on their mark? Are we there to witness when they stray

Photo credit: Images_of_Money

from original ideals or goals? When we see a worrying partnership forming up, be it with big business, pharmaceuticals or exclusive ideology?

There has to be an understanding of and commitment to co-creation with politicians as they attempt to be ‘our’ voice. The successful ones ARE our voice whether we can hear ourselves in it or not. They are only human, after all, and it’s obvious their staffers create a protective bubble for them. In other words, they eventually live in a vacuum: it’s not the real world.

Otherwise (and since we don’t want to BE the politicians), we must accept an atmosphere of extremism. Squeaky wheels are always getting the oil (dammit!). Maybe we could find a moment to look into who’s running/serving on the local council, or the state parliament, and what their agenda/long term vision is…

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Straight talk about the importance of the spirit, the fable, the archetype of religion spanning humanity:Marilynne Robinson + Marcelo Gleiser on The Mystery We Are: What do a fiction writer and an astrophysicist have in common? Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson, together with physicist Marcelo Gleiser, connect dots between the cosmos, our minds, and all the ways we discover the story of where we came from.

Jumping Over the Garden Wall

An excerpt from an article by Paul Budde, Who is Going to Dominate the Internet? Old systems breaking down because new systems are flourishing.

It was interesting to see how, a decade or so ago, some of those vested interests in the telecoms and media world tried to copy their traditional business models over to the online environment. They simply tried to create another walled garden business for their businesses, this time on the Net. ..However these walled gardens were not popular with their customers and most simply jumped over the wall onto the free and open internet.

As predicted in the late 1990s, a more successful model would be to establish vertical portals, with very deep

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content. Several of these highly specialised sites are still operating around the world, some based on language differences; others on niche markets, unique products and services, special interests, etc; and the number of such ‘long tail’ sites continue to grow.

The rules of social networking are mutable. Necessarily so. – Natasha Lomas

Pluto in Capricorn

Simply put by daykeeper journal: Pluto’s impulse goads an organism, person or a culture to experience the style of an archetype in its purest, most raw form. No impediments. Zodiacal signs are strict differentiations of universal conditions — the archetypes or noetic forms of manifestation. Capricorn’s style is pragmatism. The Capricorn message is “Wake up! Get real.” Pluto in Capricorn says “Get real — or else.”

Spending your most precious commodity…Thoughts for serious reflection in this season from the Oxford Astrologer about where you are putting your energy:

And finally, a compelling work for your consideration. Something about this poem just arrested my mind in its tracks. It takes such a magical journey from its first line to its last. Wow.